Wall construction



" Feb. 1'7. *1 925. 1,526,965

L. G. COPEMAN WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed July 23, 1925 1 d grvuemtpf pawmzfl f M Z -a I Patented Feb. 17, I925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LLOYD G. COPEMAN, OF FLINT, MICHIGAN.

WALL consrnucrron.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, LLOYD G. COPEMAN, a. citizen of the United States, residing at Flint. in the county of Genesee and State of Michigan, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Wall Constructions,

molding complete refrigerators, the outer and inner shell, of this oxy-chloride cement. The oxy-chloride cement that I have found most suitable for my use is preferably com osed of magnesium oxide, sand (crystal akes) soft silex (ground flint) ground asbestos, lit-hopone and megnesium chloride 30 Baum. However, I do not confine myself to a compound of this exact composition.

I find that a compound of this character after hardening has little expansion or contraction due to heat changes. I also find that articles made of material of this character are relatively tough and do not easily fracture considering that they are a stone construction. However, if a hard blow does fracture the substance, especially when it is used in a refri 'erator shell, the article is practically ruine It is the object of the present invention to form a slab or a wall construction reinforced by a material which will hold the wall or slab together when'a fracture does occur so that the same may be easily re-' paired. A further object is to avoid fractures if. possible by reinforcing the wall. Still a further object is to employ reinforcing material which is not open to the objection of expanding and contracting so as to be unsuitable for use with a stone work construction such as oxy-chloride cement which has little or no expansion or contraction due to thermal changes.

I have also found considerable difficulty in casting stone work articles, particularly refrigerator shells, due to the casting warping. It is the object of the present invention to overcome this warpage. Still another object is to lighten the casting by constructing it in part of a material that is very much lighter than the stone work. These and other objects will be best under stood when the discovery is understood in detail.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a sectional perspective showing the slab or wall construction.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 3 is a sectional perspective showing the slab or wall construction embodying a modified form of the invention.

. Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 1--4 of Fig. 3..

In place of pouring such a composition of matter as I have indicated above into a mold and permittin the same to harden, I take some form 0 fibrous material preferably a pulp board, and float the same in the center of the mold. This may be floated easily by driving tacks through the pulp board with the points touching the sides of the mold. I The pulp board is designated a while the tacks arr designated b. This substance is made up of a plurality of la ers of thin fiber or pulp board glued toget er.

This pulp board is provided with a plurality of perforations through which the opposite sides of the cast wall are united. I find that the use of this I pulp board center for a casting, very materially reduces the weight of the product which makes it very much better for commercial purposes.

One of the most beneficial results I find is the preventing of the warpage of the castings. In my experimental work I have found that in the casting of the refrigerator shells for instance, there is a very objectionable tendency for the same to warp towards the outside, but with a casting having this filler of pulp board, any warpage tendency is eliminated by reason of the distorting stresses or strains neutralizing each other on opposite sides of the pulp board. Any tendency to warp towards the outside on either side-of the pulp board is neutralized by the ties that are afforded for connecting the castings on opposite sides of the pulp board through the per forated holes. This achievement is. of great practical alue in casting stone work of this description.

A casting made in this way. has an added tensile strength due to the presence of the tiller which will not fracture as easily as the stone work under bending stress. The

greatest advantage, however, in a reinforcement Way is to prevent the parts separating when the casting does fracture. This keeps the parts permanently in place so that the fracture may 'be easily repaired with suitable cement. The preventing of warpa'ge is a phenomenon not easily ex lained but which has a. very practical. a vantage in practice. The lessenmg of the weight of the completed article is most desirable as obviously one of the great objections of a refri erator or other large article made out of suc material, is relatively heavy weight. There are other advantages that necessarily follow the use of a suitable reinforcement of this kind and which will be evident to one skilled in the manufacture of articles of this descri tion.

In Fig. 3 have shown a. modified form of construction in which in order to get the strength of steelreinforcement, a steel insert is used. It would not be commercially practical ordinarily to use a steel reinforcement for the reason that the oxy-chloride cement has very little contraction or expansion due to temperature changes. Steel has considerable expansion and contraction, the result is that such steel reinforcement. will crack the cement. It is the objectof the invention shown in the modified form, to permit the employment of asteel plate to give added strength without incurring this li-ability of cracking the cement. A further ob-' ject is to permit the use of a steel reinforce- Inent without unduly increasing the weight of the wall. In the construction that I have shown in Fig. 2, the same form of perforated pulp board is used, but in the center of this board is provided a steel sheet or plate having perforations ofdiameter slight- 1y reater than the perforations through the p p board. By incorporating this plate d within the pulp board and keeping it away from the edges of the pulp board on the outside and at the perforatlons, it will be obvious that the metal reinforcement is not directly tied to the cement, consequently it can expand and contract within the yieldable pulp boa-rd without in any way tending to crack the cement. It very materially strengthens the slab by resisting bending stresses. By using a relatively thick pulp board this of course lessens the weight of a casting of a given volume, and hence any increase of weight due to the greater sp ecific gravit L of metal 'over stone, .is more or less-neutr ized so-that a stone casting can be metal reinforced without increasing the Weight.

What I claim is:

1. A slalb or wall construction, comprising a perforated bulky ipulp board encased in a stonework castin o oXy-chloride cement, in which the ties o the hardened cement proect through the perforations in the pulp ard, and mould spacing members; carried by the pulp board and which are cast in the artificial stonework.

I 2. A sla'b' or wall construction, comprising a bulky pulp board encased in a stonework casting of oxy-chloride cement, and mould spacing members secured to saidpulp board-and pro'ecting from both sides of saidpulp boar and which are cast in the artificial stonework.

3. A Slfllbbl' wall construction, comprising a perforated bulky pulp board encased in a stonework casting of oXy-chloride cement,

inwhich the ties of the hardened cement project through the perforations of the pulp board, and a perforated metal plate located I within the interior of thepulp board, the perforations in said metal plate being of a larger diameter than the perforations in the pulp board to prevent the hardening cement wlnch projects through the said perforations from contacting with the metal plate.

4. A .slabor wall construction, comprising a 'bulky pul-p board encased in a stonework casting of oxy-chloride cement, a metal plate located within the interior of the pulp board, and mould spacing members carried by the pulp board and which are cast in the artificial stonework.

5. A slab or wall construction, comprising a. perforated bulky-pulp board encased in astonework casting of oxy-chloride cement in which the ties of the hardening cement project through the perforations of the pulp board, a perforated metal plate located within the interior of the pulp board, and mould spacing members secured to said. ulp board and projecting from both sides of the same, said spacing members serving to locate the pulp board in the mould and to be cast in the artificial stonework encasing said pulp board.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

LLOYD G. COPEMAN. 

